Thursday, July 30, 2015

Well, hey there fellow hyena enthusiasts! The name’s Jared. I’m
one of the new research assistants for the next year and my home camp is Talek.
I’ve been here for just over a month now and golly gee it’s been beyond
amazing. I’m a recent graduate of Kalamazoo “K” College having majored in
Biology and minored in Psychology. I hail from Bay City, Michigan a quaint,
welcoming town on the East side of the state. So how, you may ask, did I wind
up in Kenya? Well, it’s my pleasure to tell you. Back during my sophomore year
at K I was lucky enough to have taken Animal Behavior instructed by Dr. Anne
Engh, a former researcher with the project, and she sparked and fueled my
interest in Crocuta crocuta.Since that life-changing course all things
spotted hyena and the incomparable work of the project have absorbed me.
Farfetched aspirations of being able to observe the fascinating creatures
someday have consumed me ever since. This past Autumn I applied to the NSF-IRES
program and by the grace of some higher power, here I sit today in the lab tent
writing this post watching tiny butterflies of white, yellow, and orange hues
flitter around with effortless whimsy. Needless to say, being here is a dream come true.

Being here in
the midst of such powerful and innovative research has cemented the journey
I’ve always envisioned for myself as a research biologist. My interests in
animal behavior, physiology, and morphology have consistently gravitated
towards exploration of factors influencing individual variation in social
populations. The multifaceted relationship between individuality and
larger-scale population patterns within and among populations, such as social
structure and population stability, genuinely saturates my mind daily with
continuous thoughts and ponderings. Individuality as it applies to personality
specifically motivates my interests. The thought of investigating the
connections between individual variation of personality with individual
variation in agonistic, affiliative, cognitive, dispersal, maternal, and sexual
behaviors gets my neurons a’ firing. What better study organism then, than the
spotted hyena? Come the time this year ends, which I am already dreading, I
hope to pursue (fingers and toes crossed!) my Ph.D. in Animal Behavior. Through
all that rambling I hope you have a sense of who I am, and hope to be, as a
researcher. This year will undoubtedly allow me to develop my interests, and
for that alone I am entirely grateful.

Being here means
I am blessed with the opportunity to observe hyenas every single day (at least
so far, come rainy season that won’t hold true...). My first nights in the Mara
were spent in Serena camp and I vividly recall my first official PM observations
session locking eyes with a young sub-adult and feeling an insane rush of
adrenaline and uncontainable enthusiasm. That’s how it is every obs session
though, finding it hard to look away, tunnel vision on the chapter of the story
that I’m witnessing develop right in front of my eyes. I’ve already grown an
insatiable desire to learn all that I can about these magnificent beings and I
am thrilled to be in this position.

Here I am during my first darting! It was surreal and I'll never forget it. Better yet, Kay was present; taking samples and measurements alongside her was absolutely incredible. I was able to name the hyena as he was outside of Talek territory and unknown to us. Ironically it was my little brother's birthday, so I dubbed this beautiful male Joshua on July 6, 2015. The first of many amazing darting experiences!

From
waking up to the resident fruit bat every morning at 0430, to falling asleep to
the distant whoops of hyenas, and every magical moment in between, life as an
RA has been absolutely incredible but rightfully challenging so far. I couldn’t
be more excited to see what happens with the Talek West clan over the course of
these next eleven months and I am so grateful that I get to do so. This is the
adventure of a lifetime and I thank you all for taking the time to read this
blog. The thrills and wonders of spotted hyenas will not cease -- so until next
time, this is Jared wishing you all well!

Help Support the Research

You can help support our research by making a donation to the Hyena Research Fund at MSU. Your contributions provide necessary resources for the students and scientists to continue our work. Use the link below to make a donation or contact MSU for additional details.